Honest Jobs - Helping People with
Criminal Records Finding Jobs Faster
Honest Jobs is a pioneering job platform that connects individuals with misdemeanor and felony convictions to fair-chance employers. With over 400,000 job openings from 1,300+ companies, the platform significantly improves employment opportunities for justice-impacted job seekers, helping them find work 8x faster. The unique Conflix™ technology enhances the job search experience by identifying the likelihood of a candidate's record impacting their eligibility for specific roles. The UX challenge was to design an intuitive and effective experience that aligns with Honest Jobs' mission of reducing employment barriers while ensuring job seekers feel empowered throughout the process. The following projects showcases the design process only from the job seekers point of view.
PROJECT TYPE
UX DESIGN
SOFTWARE USED
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Many job seekers with criminal records face discrimination and unnecessary obstacles during their job search. Existing job platforms do not prioritize fair-chance hiring or offer clarity regarding eligibility based on past convictions. The key design challenges included:
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Ensuring a seamless and inclusive user experience for job seekers.
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Making the Conflix™ feature intuitive and actionable.
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Clearly communicating the company's mission and value proposition.
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Driving conversions through an effective sign-up and job application process.
DESIGN THINKING PROCESS
The UX design for Honest Jobs followed the Design Thinking framework, ensuring a human-centered approach that prioritized job seekers' needs and experiences. The five key stages were:
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EMPATHIZE
DEFINE
IDEATE
DESIGN
TEST
EMPATHIZE
Understanding the challenges and emotional journeys of justice-impacted job seekers was essential to creating an effective solution. To achieve this, we conducted extensive research, including:
USER INTERVIEWS
Conducted in-depth sessions with justice-impacted individuals to understand their frustrations, fears, and aspirations when
seeking employment.
STAKEHOLDER
MEETINGS
Engaged with fair-chance employers to gather insights on hiring concerns and preferences.
STAKEHOLDER
MEETINGS
SURVEYS AND DATA ANALYSIS
Collected quantitative data to assess trends in job search behaviors and barriers
to employment.
COMPETITIVE
ANALYSIS
Examined other job platforms to identify gaps in usability, accessibility, and inclusivity.
KEY FINDINGS
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Many job seekers felt anxious about applying due to unclear eligibility criteria and fear of rejection.
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Employers were open to hiring justice-impacted individuals but lacked efficient tools to assess candidate suitability.
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A need for a trust-building and transparent job search experience was evident.
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A majority of users relied on mobile devices, necessitating a mobile-first approach.
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Many of the job seekers struggled with navigating a complex job portal, so simplicity is key.
DEFINE
USER PERSONA
Name: Marcus
Age: 25
Location: Atlanta, GA
Education: High School Diploma
Brief Story
Marcus was incarcerated for seven years due to a non-violent drug offense. Released last year, he is struggling to reintegrate into society. He has a high school diploma, and has some experience working for a welder company after school, however could not gain substantial work experience due to his incarceration.
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Goals:
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Secure stable employment to support himself.
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Obtain housing and financial stability.
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Further his education for better job opportunities.
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Expunge or reduce barriers from his criminal record.
Challenges:
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Many employers reject him due to his record.
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Difficulty finding affordable housing with a background check requirement.
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Limited access for education opportunities.
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Social stigma and strained relationships with family.
Needs:
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Career training and job placement support.
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Support with housing and supplies to sustain himself.
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Mental health and support groups for reentry.
Motivations:
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Have a stable life and a family one day.
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Not to be defined by his past but his current aspirations.
Goals:
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Re-enter the corporate world and eventually build herself back up to the career she left off.
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Advocate for criminal justice reform and support organizations helping women transition out of incarceration.
Challenges:
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Facing stigma and rejection when applying to jobs due to her criminal record.
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Struggling with mental health and rebuilding confidence.
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Finding a job on her level that accepts her with her past.
Needs:
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Job placement support for a corporate job.
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Mental health and support groups for reentry.
Motivations:
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To one day help women in similar situation and to show that the past does not define her future.
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Get back to a similar level role where she left off before her incarceration.
Name: Lisa
Location: Cleveland, OH
Education: Bachelor's Degree
Brief Story
Lisa was incarcerated for three years for an offense related to credit card fraud, a crime she committed under pressure from an abusive partner. She was released a year ago and has been actively working to rebuild her life. She has her bachelor's degree and before her incarceration she was a project manager.
Age: 34
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EMPATHY MAP
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SAYS
THINKS
DOES
FEELS
" I want a fair chance."
" I am working hard to turn my life around."
"Finding a job is tough when you only fail at the background check part."
" With furthering my education, I can find a stable employment regardless of my past."
" I want to build a better future but my past keeps holding me back."
" Will people judge me if they find out about my record?"
"I need to prove myself and others that I am more than my past."
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Actively seeking for stable employment.
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Looking for courses or study programs to further his education.
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Joins therapy and support groups to heal from the past.
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Advocates for second chances and fair chance hiring practices.
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Hopeful about her education and future.
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Anxious about housing and financial stability.
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Fearful of being judged or discriminated against.
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Motivated to help others who have faced similar struggles.
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Lonely at times due to family estrangement.
IDEATE
In cross-functional teams, we conducted brainstorming sessions to generate solutions that addressed the identified pain points. Some of the top ideas included:
Intelligent Job Matching: the Conflix™ driven recommendation system to suggest jobs with the highest hiring likelihood.
Conflix™ Score Enhancement: A color-coded visual system that simplifies job eligibility understanding.
Gamified Onboarding: A step-by-step onboarding process that helps users build confidence in their job search. As users are not familiar with resume building, filling out this form also generates a resume that users can later download.
Community Support Features: Integrating a support center for justice-impacted individuals who need other assistance besides finding a job, such as support in housing, food or legal counseling.
Created Information Architecture: organize, structure, and label content in a way that makes information easy to find to help users navigate the site smoothly and find what they need efficiently.
PROTOTYPE
BRANDING
As part of the design process, we carefully reviewed our brand identity guide to ensure that our website maintains a strong, cohesive brand presence. This allowed us to align every visual and structural element with our established brand standards, ensuring consistency in messaging, aesthetics, and overall identity across all touchpoints.
VISUAL IDENTITY - LOGO
Primary logo
This horizontal logo is the primary Honest Jobs logo to represent the brand.
Logo usage
Minimum size: For readability, the horizontal logo is never reduced below 220px wide. The favicon is never reduced below 35px.
Favicon
This horizontal logo is the primary Honest Jobs logo to represent the brand.
Clear space
Minimum size: For readability, the horizontal logo is never reduced below 220px wide. The favicon is never reduced below 35px.
VISUAL IDENTITY - COLOR PALETTE
VISUAL IDENTITY - COLOR ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES
VISUAL IDENTITY - TYPOGRAPHY
Sen
Sen is reserved for headings.
Sen is a Geohumanist sans, released under the SIL Open Font License (OFL). https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Sen
Open Sans
Open Sans for body copy.
Open Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface.
https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Open+Sans
Lincensing under Apache License, Version 2.0.
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
VISUAL IDENTITY - ICON STYLE
The icon style is straightforward and minimal. We use our icons as a tool of clarity in our brand. Therefore, they are always easy to interpret.
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VISUAL DESIGN
Both low- and high-fidelity wireframes were designed using Figma in alignment with the brand identity guidelines, ensuring a cohesive and intuitive user experience while addressing key challenges. The goal was to create an interface that is not only visually harmonious but also highly functional and user-friendly. While multi-interface mockups were developed to accommodate various platforms, a mobile-first approach remained a top priority. This decision was driven by the fact that the majority of our users primarily access the platform via mobile devices, making it essential to optimize usability and performance for smaller screens.
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Profile
It will take the user to the other menu items,
such as editing their profile, settings and the
reentry center for additional support.
Conflix™ Scoring System
Designed an intuitive Conflix™ scoring system that visually indicates the likelihood of hiring success.
Streamlined Job Search Filters
Users could filter jobs by additional factors besides job title and location, such as radius or recommended jobs.
Easy Application
Using intuitive icons for effortlessly viewing job descriptions and applying with ease.
Fair Chance Employers
Implemented a badge showing the dedication of employers to fair chance hiring.
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Profile to resume
It was crucial to design a user-friendly, editable interface that seamlessly transforms into a resume, allowing job seekers and employers to easily view it.
A simple interface to access all the relevant information that is easy to keep track of.
Easy access to job search
and resources
TEST
To validate our design choices, we conducted multiple rounds of usability testing with job seekers and employers. We utilized:
User Feedback Sessions: Gathered qualitative insights through think-aloud testing.
Heatmaps & Analytics: Monitored user interactions to identify areas needing improvement.
Key Improvements Based on Testing:
Refined the Conflix™ color coding for better clarity and accessibility.
Simplified the sign-up process, reducing steps from five to three for faster user onboarding.
Improved mobile responsiveness, ensuring a smooth experience on all devices.
IMPACT
With the help of the UX redesign, Honest Jobs helped justice-impacted job seekers find jobs 6x faster.
We noticed stronger employer engagement, leading to a growth in fair-chance job postings.​
Additionally, we feedback from justice-impacted job seekers, who reported a boost in confidence in their job search journey.